Paths of Ivy
by MessengerOfDreams
Summary: A quiet, adventurous woman meets a kindly young man in green clothes and an odd green hat as she walks through the forests. But after a few hours in his company she isn't sure where her path leads her next. OCxLink ...yep. An OC from me. Enter if ye dare


**A/N First things first, most of this story was written when I was tired,couldn't sleep, spaced and writing this story so intricately I put on jungle sounds or Sigur Ros and lost myself in the world. So even as I go back a sober man, I have no idea how well I did. XD But I like it!**

**The reason I'm not using this time to work on The Game or Book of Marth is cause in my current state, I don't want any of my professional-er works tied to it. xD This is, however, a character test for the one of my works.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not in control of my thoughts so thank god I don't own anyone except the AU concept of my characters. Enjoy if you dare.**

The young lady with the long aquamarine hair seemed to at once blend in and stand out of the forested background. She was quite a stunning sight, for better or worse. One couldn't tell how she made it into such a deep, untethered jungle on her own, or how she didn't seem like she had at all. But she had, and there was no questioning that.

Her steps were ginger and quiet, matching her calm breathing. Her smooth, clean white shirt and her flowing glacial blue skirt didn't serve to slow her down despite being improper gear. She twirled her head around in one swift motion to observe her surroundings, but didn't take much of it in before she focused on her path once more, which brought forth an obstacle.

A log stared her down in the path, or whatever one called the patches of dirt that weaved through the trees. She didn't give it more than a passing glance before she began to climb over it, pressing her arms onto it and hoisting herself up until she lay flat on top of it, her chest pushing her up ever-so-slightly off of the fallen tree trunk.

She found herself just a tad out of breath as she rested her chin on her hands, glancing down the log just above its surface. The wood's ridges protruded and fell into itself across the entire scope of her vision, and she took a moment to run her long, bony fingers through its crevasses. She cracked a small smile before she, finding herself recuperated enough, climbing off the log and wiping the bark dust off of her dress, started to walk once more.

She was led by nothing as she continued through the endless rows of asymmetrical trees of many different forms and variations, save for instinct and adventure. The world was quiet around her with little activity other than the birds and the occasional squirrel that ran beneath her feet, zigzagging after something out of distance. Slowly looking around her while keeping steady on the none-too-carved path, she smiled as she watched the life take place around her.

Try as she might to occupy herself with the important task of walking down the path, she just couldn't seem to do it, which left her not at all surprised when she bumped into a tall figure. She shook off the impact and stepped back, her eyes ringing with curiosity and her mouth only slightly ajar as she observed the fellow human being who somehow was out here.

The young man did not seem too far past her own span of years, perhaps by a year or two, and certainly matched up to her height. He wore an emerald-colored suit built for the terrain he was in, and a matching green hat that stretched out far beyond the top of his head. This amused her, and she reached forward and softly grabbed the end, pulling it around. She suddenly realized what she was doing, and ceased while looking embarrassed, gazing into the young man's bewildered eyes. They were bold blue, somewhat like her own faded periwinkle. Somewhat like the cloth hanging on the clothesline that she had taken for warmth- she hoped no one minded.

She saw his mouth move, doing those odd things that people did for some reason or another. She didn't respond, just giving a slight raise of the eyebrow. When he saw that she didn't react, he tried again, but she didn't see what or why he was doing what he was doing. When he finally realized that, he tried waving a hand in front of her face. Finally recognizing what he was doing, she reached and moved her own directly in front of his eyes as a form of greeting, her hand brushing a sliver of his blonde hair.

He grinned, closing his eyes and shaking a little bit in amusement as he began to walk away. Not sure what else to do, she followed, tiptoeing behind the young man. He seemed to notice just a bit but didn't bother making an effort to stop her. When she deduced this, she smiled just a little bit wider.

Eventually, he made his way to a small clearing, where a busy brook lay in front of the small patch of pale grass that faded into more dirt. That wasn't what grabbed her attention, though. The saddled horse savoring the clean water was what caught her twinkling eye. She knew not to upset the horse and let it have its drink, so she stood still, waiting for the horse to back away from the water before she stepped up. She noticed the lad watched her with a keen curiosity, but she didn't mind.

Tiptoeing softly as to not upset the horse, she made sure the horse- who she deduced to be a female- was calm and willing before she came close enough to stroke her snowy white mane, a white almost identical to her own shirt. The horse reacted in kind, allowing the girl to brush through her hairs and taking visible comfort from doing so. Looking behind her shoulder, the girl looked at the young man with a look that conveyed a request for acceptance. She took his slight, pleased smile as proof enough, but let go and walked towards the creek this time.

She gazed at her reflection and continued to take pride in what she saw. Her face was clean, her lips were just the soft pink color she liked them, and thankfully the smooth, bony lines on her face hadn't inexplicably changed. And her hair… always was her favorite part. She was glad she decided not to cut it with a razor she had found outside her last village. She liked the bold blue, perfectly straight hair just as it was, down to just above her waist. The rest of her body she saw as just necessity as far as she was concerned, but her face and her hair she tried to keep looking just as pretty as she wanted it to be, and she grinned widely in confirmation, running a finger through the waters where she could see herself fondly.

She noticed the young man with the blond hair crouched next to her, and_ that_ surprised her. She leapt back a tiny bit, stumbling over herself onto the dirt. She gave him a small pout, annoyed at what he had just done, but accepting his hand as he pulled her up onto her feet with him. When they were both steady on the ground, she gave him a small, evil grin as a warning to her next action. He didn't seem to process it, so she showed no mercy, gleefully pushing him over so that he stumbled and fell into the creek, soaking himself with water. He didn't look too pleased either, moving his mouth in rapid movements that corresponded with his displeased glare.

Any of the relishing she had gained in that moment was vaporized and replaced with immediate guilt as she ran towards him, perturbed at her own actions. He seemed reluctant to her assistance, brushing her off gently, but she couldn't let herself surrender. She pulled him out of the creek, her expression pained and fraught with remorse. He didn't fight her, but still didn't look too pleased as he straightened himself up. She tried to show repentance by running her fingers slowly across his arm, looking to see if she had hurt him. She frowned deeper as she found one, a sizable red gash just above his elbow. A few scant tears came to her eyes as she let his arm go. Displeased and somewhat sorrowful, she fell onto the ground and rolled onto her back, staring at the sky as a few tears leaked down her cheeks.

The man's face showed his concern, and he knelt down near her and, when he was sure she could see him, gave her a soft smile and an amused eyebrow raise. She responded in kind with a smile mirroring hers as her tears started to absorb into the dirt and disappear into the soil. One of them grabbed a blade of grass and slowly slithered down until it too reached terra firma.

He took a seat to her left, between her and the resting horse. He reached behind him and grabbed a hold of a brown parchment bag that seemed all-but-bursting with mysterious items. She watched eagerly as he opened it, pulling out the first item.

In a small container lay a rather impressive collection of berries, which piqued her interest. He took a small handful out and placed it into her open palms, and watched as she looked through them. Her look turned from one of satisfaction to one of concern as she took a bright red berry that she disliked very much, after it made her stomach feel a pain she never wanted to experience again. Out it was tossed, as far away from her as she could, and she watched it plink into the brook. Focused, she picked through her handful of berries and tossed out seven more identical fruit to the red berry in the water.

Not wasting any time to down her remaining handful, she grabbed the container without waiting for him to hand it to her and started searching through it. Messily digging through, she picked out every bright red berry she saw, hurling them out into the surrounding areas. Astonished, the man tried taking the canister away from her, but she remained indignant, smacking his wrist and giving him a ferocious glare. Wisely, he backed off and let her scour the rest of the berries until the offending ones were out of reach. Accomplished, she gathered any spilled fruit and restored it into the container, which she relinquished with a proud smile.

He was able to piece together what she had done and thanked her with another rewarding smile, which she accepted with glee while picking a few more edible berries out of the canister. He kindly removed her hand from the bin and placed it back into his back. He replaced it by pulling out a soft pillow and a thick blanket. Such items were used when one wanted to retire for the night, so she glanced up into the sky and took note of the stars, and knew it was near that time. She nodded, not bothering to stick around as she crept towards the creek, splashing her face and taking a drink or two. It seemed to be her time to go, which was a shame, as she was enjoying herself.

Suddenly, a sharp burst of water sprayed her in the eye, frustrating and shocking her. She shook her head swiftly, then zoning in on the culprit. A large fish glared back at her, daring her to retaliate. What a foolish fish, to not know what she was capable of. She gave it her most dangerous look and then leapt into the water with reckless abandon, determined to make that fish her next meal.

It was all too late by now, but the fish realized what he had gotten himself into, and started to flounder away. She was determined not to let that happen, though, and she dashed through the water after it. The chase didn't go on for long as she made a bold move to leap towards the fish, crushing and capturing it in her grip against her chest. It continued to squirm but she fought it as she tried to crawl up to the shore, flailing her way to solid ground. Soon enough she found her way to the dirt and threw the fish towards the man, who looked on in astonishment. As the fish's life ended before them, she crawled to her feet and raised her fist to the sky, the champion in that battle.

He shook and grinned once more, giving her a slow round of applause. She beamed, collapsing on top of the blanket and pillow as she allowed him to prepare a fire to cook the fish in, relaxing

in the sunset as it faded out of sight, out of mind.

Soon enough, although not fast enough for her, the two sat with a handful of berries and a somewhat cooked salmon under the surrounding trees with the water rushing in the background, savoring the tastes in between satisfied smiles. She had a deck of playing cards in her hand, a flurry of favorite games passing through her mind as she sorted through them in between bites. Making careful sure not to stain them in the meal, she held up one of them in the air as a request. He nodded, accepting the small, tattered deck of cards with the recognizable symbols of the land. She grinned, clasping her hands together in anticipation.

He rapidly dealt two hands for them, and she was impressed at his speed. He placed hers into her palm and allowed her to digest and prepare for the game he had in mind. When she did, it was she who made the first move by placing a card down in the middle, which bore ten small nut-like objects on it. He placed one with an image of a royal woman on its face, which placed even higher than her ten. Hmm… did she have…

Yes. She did. She placed the only higher ranking card on top of his, a royal male with much fanfare in the decoration. She watched him lithely process his small defeat and brush the hand towards her side and started again, donning his own sneaky grin as he placed a two of silver diamonds onto the pile.

It looked too easy, but she was happy to reciprocate with a five of the same suit. He placed a seven, and she followed it up with a young royal. His hidden deviousness came to light as he placed down a royal man of the leading suit and immediately claimed the hand.

She recognized his strategy and gave him a small, wan grin and an eyebrow raise, crossing her arms and shaking her head condescendingly. Truthfully, she was impressed at his skill.

Looking just above his head, she saw a strand of one of her favorite pieces of life, a long string of ivy leaves. Card games were all but forgotten as she ran towards them with an adoring smile. She looked around, and without a care or second thought, pulled a large, silver sword out of its sheath in order to cut just a small portion off.

Alarmed, the blond-haired man leapt up towards her, and she expected with a level of resignation for him to take the sword back as his. She was pleasantly surprised, then, to see him place only one hand on the sword, guiding her towards the plants in order to prevent any injuries. She would admit, just a tad begrudgingly, that she was grateful for it. Slowly, they cut through the plant, gathering just a small portion that she immediately picked up and placed around her wrist.

He settled back onto the ground, gathering the blanket up and leaning close to the fire. She followed him immediately, not even thinking about making her own departure. They sat straight across from each other as they appreciated the fine warmth of the passionately burning kindles. He moved his mouth once more, but then stopped himself as he realized his error. Now he was getting it, and thanks to the gods.

He pointed towards her, letting her answer the supposed question he had posed. She looked at him blankly, expecting more as she blinked. He backtracked his thoughts and decided on a different approach. He pointed at himself and then, as a sign, he placed his right thumb on his left forefinger, and vice versa, letting the fingers run in a sort of chain-link.

She took that to be a sort of name, and nodded in recognition. She pointed at herself and then took the ivy leaf in her hand before moving it back up to her wrist. To make things a bit easier for communication, she placed her ring finger just before her middle finger, allowing the sort of intertwining to be her own symbol. When he nodded with a smile that made her heart leap for just a second, she relaxed.

He held his own hand out and she decided to take it with little hesitation. His palm was warm with the beat of his pulse and the running of the blood through his veins. She smiled as she sat next to him, gazing over the fire and over the brook and all its little creatures. With his hand entwined with hers and such a remarkable piece of land and view around her, she felt... rather content. Any plans of what she wanted to do tomorrow were incomprehensible at the moment.

Eventually, he would have to make his way to his own setup, resting on the pillow and under the blanket. She blinked, but recognized it was probably a safe time to head back onto her own trail. But the idea seemed to turn into a massive, dreary weight on her chest. She tried to process what on earth she wanted to do tomorrow and...she realized how gray and underwhelming and even _sad _any of her adventures would seem right now, back on her lonesome. It had been awhile since she had been in the company of someone like him, but she didn't imagine she'd want to stay so much. But it had to be done; she had already assumed so much of him that it would be impolite to stay.

She realized she had been lost in her mind for longer than she intended so she climbed onto her own two feet and gave the chain-link man one last smile. She realized that he had just started to doze off, and that smile turned into an empty, hollow frown as she walked out of the clearing.

But not without snagging one of the playing cards they had used. It was the young noble man, of the tree suit. The crude brown symbolism of the forest lay under her thumb as she made her way over logs, not quite willing to put the card into a safer place.

Even then, she couldn't push herself that far away. Three downed logs away and she reclined against one of them, not bothering to put any effort towards physical comfort. Her mind was racing with so many thoughts that confused her and seemed to tear her in many different directions. In her chest she felt a fluttering and yet... a tightening, an aching in her stomach. And she was pretty sure she hadn't eaten anything that would make her sick. She knew everything about how to take care of herself because it was all she ever knew how to do. She'd never make the same mistake twice; in fact she rarely made mistakes at all.

But as she lay behind the log clumsily, everything about her feeling like a giant puddle of question, she couldn't help but think that she was making a very big mistake.

**~MoD~**

Sometime during that night, she had fallen asleep. Hence, sometime during that morning, she awoke. She didn't remember much of what had transpired through the day before, but she felt that emptiness again, and still felt no drive to do anything. Why was it that after all she had ventured, she felt a desire to give up now for little to no explicable reason?

She struggled to her feet and looked around. She didn't know which way she was going today but she knew she had to go somewhere, shake this mysterious pain off of her. She looked around her before she remembered that she wasn't carrying anything with her.

As she scanned the area, she felt an unwarranted warmth fill the air around her. She was suspicious at first, but let her guard down soon, as there was something familiar to this feeling. Reminded her of a nice, warm fire-

Fire. Nice passionate fire that made the air feel welcome. It was by a creek. She had gone into that creek, chasing after a fish. The fish that was cooked at the fire. And she was at that fire, playing cards-

Card. She didn't notice she still had gripped it in between her thumb and forefinger all night while she had slept behind this log. She looked onto the card, and saw the young royal on it. Blond hair, powerful horse.

The horse. A kindly, strong warrior horse. Used by the strongest of warriors.

That sword. The sword she used to cut off the ivy.

The ivy. Yes, what was still on her wrist. The ivy that was like her. That he had identified her by.

Chain-link.

She created his symbol with her hands only for a second before she leaped over the logs, not even bothering to clean up after herself if she could. The forest was quiet as usual, as was everything to her, but the sights were so loud, so distracting. She had to find him. He already meant so much to her.

She ran into a tree, but rebounded off, not letting the impact faze her. She couldn't lose focus now, she wasn't far away. She dashed around the squirrels and ducked under the birds that were so innocent as she nearly broke the air trying to reach the clearing. It all made sense.

She looked around, desperately, hopefully, for the fire and the horse and the blanket and the bag that had the berries somewhere amid the slow-burning fire and the rest of the fish they hadn't eaten. She looked for the boy that she had taken the card from, but he wasn't there. Where was he? He couldn't have just left... he just couldn't.

She fell to her knees and stared her reflection down, choking back tears, trying to convince herself how meaningless and unnecessary her feelings were while her face, what she always thought was beautiful, started to contort and twist into a pained expression almost as ugly as the hurt and disappointment that sloshed around in her gut, worse than the first time she had eaten those berries.

Angrily, she pounded her fist into the water, disgusted at what had happened and the choices she had made. At her cowardice. She tried to convince herself that it was due to her cowardice for breaking down right now, but she knew that wasn't what it was. She stared her reflection down, daring it to crumble, when she saw another object fill into her view.

She didn't hesitate to see if the green was even what she thought it was before she twirled around and faced the chain-link boy, her breath caught in her throat. He looked straight into her eyes, concerned and surprised, and it dawned on her that she may not have been the only one confused by why she had left.

They stood, looking at each other for a few seconds, unsure of how to act. But try as she might, she couldn't stay. She ran towards him, arms out, and pulled him towards her body in an embrace like she had never given anything else before him. She rested her head on his right shoulder, smiling out of his sight even though her body shook with soft, somewhat embarrassing sobs.

He didn't resist her, either, and in fact returned her embrace. She was at once surprised and touched at how tightly he returned the embrace, as if he was just as relieved being there as well. It made her feel a bit less ridiculous with how short of a time all this had transpired. It also made her feel more and more confident about it.

As their breathing began to settle and the tears dried out to two satisfied smiles, their entwined fingers spoke more than either of them ever would have chosen to.

**A/N Extreme cheese or etheral fluff? You decide! I still have no clue but I'm somewhat proud of this. Like I said, though, this is the byproduct of little to no sleep- in fact I had to edit some parts to avoid too much schlock!**

**If you were confused, my protagonist (let's call her Ivy) is in fact both mute and deaf. She's also a loner due to the twists of fate and sees things in a very different way due to not having the ability to learn how to communicate better from parents and whatnot. I didn't want to develop her that much but I tried to make those two points very obvious.**

**Anyway, I'm hopeful that you enjoyed my first OC story!**

**~MoD**


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